


Drachentöter

by Haza_Souz



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 21:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15648879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haza_Souz/pseuds/Haza_Souz
Summary: Iron deadens the senses of it's wearers and leaves rotten, wilted life where once was verdance, but what other choice do humans have to fight back against Dragons; mystical, monstrous beings that warp the plants and animals around them by merely existing?(Or: That one dragon x knight AU basically every ship should have.)





	Drachentöter

The castle Landeserstburg was in high spirits. The people bustled, haggling over vegetables, griping about the work today, but every conversation drifted back to the same topic. They'd be free to travel again soon!

"I'll give you eight Pfennige at most. Nothing more! Besides, we'll get more soon, because this morning-"

"I saw two of them just today! No, really! The crier was nearly passing out from yelling that-"

"Ha! You're a bigger liar than the trader that says we're out of luck, because-"

"Mama, is it true? Minnie told me that-"

The Dragonslayer had arrived.

"Welcome."

Sir Asuka Langley clenched her fist on her chest, back straightening and looking towards the lord of the castle. Duke Ikari raised his head - it was odd so see a lord who did not sit upright on his throne, but instead half-slouched, leaning forwards with his hands steepled.

"Ser Langley. You know why you are here."

Asuka jerked her head upwards, chin out, prideful. "Of course!"

"Then there is little to discuss," Ikari said. Asuka managed to hide a scowl at his brusqueness, upset at his seeming dismissal. "The reward is as was discussed earlier. Did Lady Soryu equip you correctly?"

She wavered, blinking very hard all of a sudden. He knew- of course he would. Asuka forced a smile onto her face even as sweat gathered on her brow and icy slime trickled down her neck. "Y-yes. I... we have everything we will need. Mother was sure to prepare me for this. We only need a guide for the forest."

"The wildersmen and minor villages closer to Tannenforst will be more useful, and assuredly aid a dragonslayer." Gendo didn't even blink, his narrowed eyes - that was how Mari had looked before getting her bronze frames. Were his eyes okay?

Asuka felt her barriers go up, even as Ikari felt uncomfortably familiar to her. He would be trustworthy, at least; Asuka prided herself on guessing people's loyalty. No one else had believed her when saying Mari would follow her, and in the same way, she was willing to bet that not many of his courtiers would trust Ikari further than they could throw him. "Then, thank you for the chance to serve you, Lord Ikari," she said, bowed - though it chafed at her - and made to leave.

\----

"So, what's the plan?", Mari said, breaking the silence of the hour-long ride. She leaned over her saddle lazily, hunched and with her usual carefree smile playing around her lips.

Asuka sat stewing on her horse for a moment, the city's bustle fading quickly. She looked at the roadside, noting the way the grass was wilder than usual, and how little bushes were encroaching onto the side of the path, making it jagged. Either the people were so terrified of dragons that they'd been hiding in the city for far longer than normal, or the corruption being so intense-

"Princess~," Mari trilled and rode closer, poking Asuka in the side. The knight jumped in her saddle and whirled around, glaring at Mari. "Something on your mind?"

"Nothing," Asuka answered grumpily, and squinted at Mari. "Oi, aren't you supposed to keep those frames off while we're in transit?"

"But how will I see my princess' darling annoyed face- Ow!" Mari recoiled as Asuka flicked her forehead, leaning back. She took the frames off, visibly relaxing as they were placed in their leather pouch. Sometimes it seemed like she was showing off, but to who? Who would be so impressed by Mari numbing her skin to wear the stupid metal things when it wasn't necessary for her to see? Asuka made a mental note to look for a leathercrafter in the city to make a replacement; touching metal all the time was bad for her, even if it was just bronze.

"What?", Asuka said, blinking, realising that she'd been staring vaguely past Mari while her ranger patiently waited for a response. "Oh, the plan. ...We need to find it first, but that's about it. Those things can't handle iron, so I just suit up and kill it."

Mari navigated her horse around a depression in the road, looking out of the corner of her eye at Asuka. "And you can handle iron?"

"Of course I can!", Asuka scoffed. A moment later, she remembered the feeling; cloying, deadening, like an ugly dull weight on her shoulders, like being trapped in a coffin. Her face warped into a scowl again. She was a knight, and wearing iron was what she did, what she could do that no one else could. "Of course I can."

Wind rustled the leaves at the roadside, and a very faint bustle of conversation was just about audible from over the next rise, which meant they'd found their first town. More proof that there really was a dragon about; the dirt path was dry and cracking, warping upwards from the roots forcing their way through the ground. Any farmer would push as hard as he or she could for trees like these to be torn down for the trouble caused by running a wagon over them.

They rode past the first few houses, and Asuka amended her 'town' to 'dump of a village', seeing barely two dozen people out and about at the peak market time. They glanced fearfully at her and Mari - well, just her, as Mari dismounted and tied Acht to the rack beside the watering trough. "Gotta make sure we're good on rations!" The ranger winked at her and moved in the direction of the general peddler's store, and Asuka sighed before spurring Zwei in the direction of the most-equipped looking scared face.

"Your hero has arrived!" Ah, but it was hard not to grin down at him, Zwei's heavy charger form putting her at least twice the poor man's height without even straightening up. "Where's the dragon?"

A ripple ran through the handful of watchers, as though saying it out loud would summon it. The man - barely, honestly, spotty face and beardless chin betraying him as even younger than her - coughed and made a hurried shushing motion. "Hushshhshhsh! Don't say it out loud like that!"

"Huh! Why not? Why would I worry?"

He fretted, motioning for her to get closer; Asuka moved Zwei closer. Why get down? "Oh, come on- Please? I don't wanna say it out loud."

Asuka looked down at him; raising a single eyebrow, then leaned down just a hair.

"Gods, are all Knights like this?", he grumbled, before stepping beside her flank and raising him arm squarely south-westwards. "On the path, until you see a greatoak with the mountain's height carved into the bark - that's the furthest the dragon's influence spreads. You'll see where it is after that."

"Dragons only have a long-term influence on the flora's growth, so following the wilder side of the trees only leads me to where it sat for a while," Asuka lectured with a sniff. "I need an actual guide; someone who knows the trees."

"What? No one would dare get close to the place! Why don't you just go in and find i-it?"

Asuka suppressed the tempting urge to get Zwei to relieve herself on his feet. "Because, obviously, a dragon of this size won't win if it lets me find it. I need to know its watering holes, its hunting grounds, its resting places, and the whole place is going to be choking in wildgrowth."

The boy gave a twitchy shrug. "No one's mad enough to mess around in it! Don't you know that those things can bewitch the humans that stumble into it's nest?"

"Honestly - they're big scaly lizards, not sorcerors, you idiot," she tutted. "There's a lot a dragon - stop twitching! - can do, but it won't do jack shit against my armour, and they definitely don't do active, conscious magic." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mari emerge from the shop with a short-haired shopkeep girl waving smittenly after her.

"Hey - what'd she do to Sakura? Oi, Knight, is that your companion? Why doesn't she lead you, then"

"She wishes," Asuka grumbled, then ignored his further protests and trotted back over to join Mari. "Had enough flirting with the locals?"

"Me, shirk my duty to chase pretty faces? Why, Princess, you wound me~," Mari sighed as she placed three wrapped packages into the saddlebags and swung herself up, winking at the girl at the entrance. "We're fine for a week at least with foraging and a good yield, but after that I'll be spending my time stalking our dinners. Any luck with the guide?"

"They're all cowards who think dragons are magical creatures of wonder and enchantment," Asuka grouched. "Either we hope for outcasts closer to, or we're on full alert inside the forest."

Mari followed her out of the town and down the rough, half-grown path, easing off her chirpy cheer for a moment. "You're not going to wear the armour the whole time."

"How the hell else am I supposed to-?"

Mari threw her a warning look, and Asuka avoided meeting it. Encased. A sarcophagus, a corpse-eater of deadening metal covering her body, that's what armour was, but she could take it! Mari was an idiot, and besides, she wasn't Asuka. Mari couldn't take the armour, and Asuka could, so who was she to say where Asuka's limits were?

\----

The greatoak came into view after only an hour of light riding, while the light shrubbery remained devoid of helpful forest-dwellers with encyclopedic knowledge of the land, and incidentally a hot baths for access to dragonslayers. However-

"See her?" Mari murmured when the lower half came into view, slipping her hand down and putting the glasses on, focusing on a faint smudge of- blue? She dropped off Acht, slipping easily up two branches for a vantage point.

"Just about," lied Asuka, slowing Zwei's steady canter to a slow walk. "She look dangerous to you?"

"Well, she doesn't look like the dragon," Mari said back. "You're- Princess?!"

Asuka had already started Zwei up again, a bit of exercise at last. She responded gladly with speed, no longer bound to Mari's pony's pace - oh, what a sight she must be, Asuka knew, red and maroon tones of boiled leather plate with her dark red cloak fluttering at the speed, on a full war charger's back that approached the, yes, girl at a fair clip. Somewhere behind her, Mari was sighing and dropping back onto Acht, but then Asuka was already upon the girl.

"Lady of the land!" She drew Zwei up into a whinny, eyes meeting the girl's, and she looked every inch the Knight she was. "I am Dragonslayer Asuka!"

The young woman had oddly soft red eyes that stood out from her face, pale and angular with a short crop of light blue hair that seemed to change colour every time Asuka glanced up from her face. She was wearing something that could pass for a priestess' robes were it not for the dirt and the colour; muted greens and browns.

"..."

The lady looked up at Asuka, appearing slightly unimpressed, which was absolutely impossible.

"I said, greetings! I am here to slay the dragon!"

"...Are you sure that's a good thing?"

Asuka blinked, shook her head, blinked again, holding onto the harness to not fall off her saddle in disbelief. "...Would you like the list of reasons in order of crimes against morality, frequency, or dangers prevented? You can't be serious!"

"Perhaps... there could be more to a dragon." The woman dropped her gaze, and Asuka felt a twinge of guilt, before crushing it.

She dismounted, patting a happy Zwei on the side, and looked over. "Well, when I see it I'll trying talking to it, how's that?", she replied flippantly, and the soft red eyes flicked up again.

"You will?"

Something felt weird; maybe she was a dragon worshiper or something? Asuka definitely didn't believe all that thrall garbage, but humans could be exceptionally stupid at times with no supernatural aid. "Sure, why not? I'll win anyway, so I won't need to catch it unawares. Zwei can run faster than even dragons can fly, and I know I'm right, so it's not like I'll jeopardise anything."

"Then..." The girl with the ephemeral blue hair and the soft red eyes wavered, then picked up her basket as Mari arrived on Acht, finally catching up. "I will show you what I know of the dragon's homestead, if you swear to speak."

"Easy, done," Asuka said, and began to clamber back up to Zwei's back. "You live in the woods?"

Mari interjected; "Princess, who's the girl?"

"You're a princess?", the girl asked.

"Knight Ser Asuka, actually," Asuka grunted as she swung her leg over. "Mari just does that to annoy me. Good call on ignoring her, ...er..."

"Rei," she said quietly, and Asuka strained to hear her over Mari's indignant theatrical squawk; 'Rei' seemed to be soft-spoken at the best of times. Why did she always find the weird ghost-like locals?

Asuka nodded, and as Rei turned and took her basket of berries she'd foraged, let herself smile. Barely a moment later, she drove Zwei into a canter again, and bent down with one arm outreached to curl around Rei's waist, sweeping her up in a move taken right from the knightly tapestures. The girl was heavier than expected, wirier than her slight frame would indicate, and she froze up completely as Asuka swept her into a carrying position and Zwei slowed for effect.

"Something got your tongue?", Asuka said with a grin, shuffling back in the saddle and letting Rei squeeze herself in front, between the reins and Asuka.

"I could have walked...", Rei mumbled.

"Consider it a service," Asuka countered. The sun was beginning a decline, so getting a move on would be better, and they likely would have to dismount as the wildgrowth worsened. Rei appeared to be either deep in thought or stunned into admiring silence, so Asuka let her be for now, save for the occasional hand pointing.

"What was that about flirting with the locals?", Mari said with a smirk, going up close enough to whisper in Asuka's ear, who promptly glared back at her. Rei might have stiffened, but that was probably just the hop Zwei needed to skip over a flowering bush in the middle of the pathway.

"Mari, behave yourself," Asuka said imperiously, taking the high ground. "We are on a mission of noble cause-"

"We're going to kill a dragon."

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Terry Pratchett's "Lord And Ladies" for the iron idea.


End file.
